Studies of identical and non-identical twins indicate that our self-esteem is influenced by the genes we inherited from our parents, but also, and perhaps slightly more so, by environmental factors. And according to a new study in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, these environmental influences started playing a lasting role very early in life.

Robyn Hitchcock

Here’s something you probably didn’t do this morning: Look in the mirror and ask, am I a jerk? It seems like a reasonable question. There are, presumably, genuine jerks in the world. And many of those jerks, presumably, have a pretty high moral opinion of themselves, or at least a moderate opinion of themselves. They don’t think of themselves as jerks, because jerk self-knowledge is hard to come by.

The world is full of assholes. Wherever you live, whatever you do, odds are you’re surrounded by assholes. The question is, what to do about it?

Exactly how parents shape their children is a matter of controversy, especially since Judith Rich Harris’ book The Nurture Assumption popularised the behavioural genetics position that the “shared environment” (so-called because it’s shared by siblings) – including the family home and parents’ methods of upbringing – has scant influence on how children turn out. But the debate is far from settled, and now a team chiefly from Florida State University has investigated whether more educated parents produce offspring with particular personality characteristics.

The political left might consider itself more open-minded than the right. But research shows that liberals are just as prejudiced against conservatives as conservatives are against liberals. By Matthew Hutson.

There are lots of stereotypes about the kind of people in different professions. Lawyers and business people are often caricatured as ruthless and self-interested, especially when compared to the kind of folk who enter professions usually seen as caring, such as nursing or psychology. To test the truth of these stereotypes, a new study in Personality and Individual Differences surveyed the “Dark Triad” and “Big Five” traits of hundreds of Danish students enrolled to begin studying either psychology, politics, business/economics or law.

We underestimate the stupid, and we do so at our own peril. By Corinne Purtill.

Why do overbearing, obnoxious people so often come out on top? What a story from Papua New Guinea reveals about the rise of Donald Trump. By Joel Robbins, (Feb. 2, 2017)

People mislead themselves all day long. We tell ourselves we’re smarter and better looking than our friends, that our political party can do no wrong, that we’re too busy to help a colleague. In 1976, in the foreword to Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene, the biologist Robert Trivers floated a novel explanation for such self-serving biases: We dupe ourselves in order to deceive others, creating social advantage. Now after four decades Trivers and his colleagues have published the first research supporting his idea.

Research is pointing to conscientiousness as the one-trait-to-rule-them-all in terms of future success, both career-wise and personal. “It would actually be nice if there were some negative things that went along with conscientiousness,” Roberts told me. “But at this point it’s emerging as one of the primary dimensions of successful functioning across the lifespan. It really goes cradle to grave in terms of how people do.”

Are you surrounded by fools? Are you the only reasonable person around? Then maybe you’re the one with the jerkitude. By Eric Schwitzgebel.

A new study found that an appreciation for dark jokes is linked to higher IQ and lower aggression.

An Australian man has shot to fame after telling how - dressed only in his underwear - he chased a driver who crashed into a shop. Daniel McConnell leapt from bed after the smash in Brisbane, Queensland, in the early hours of Thursday. He said he followed the driver, who fled the scene, before giving police directions to apprehend him. "I was just chasing him in me jocks," Mr McConnell said in a TV interview viewed millions of times online.

We all say things we don't mean — but these people definitely meant what appears here. By John Kuroski.

What if Julius Evola had written a samurai treatise? What if Lao Tzu had written a long, systematic book of philosophy instead of the short, poetic chapters of the Tao Te Ching? What if the famed, long-lost book On Nature by Heraclitus – he who was called “The Dark” – were to be found and published?

“If we can isolate irritability we can perhaps develop treatments that are best targeted towards people that are particularly irritable.” 2016. By Jesse Singal.

Apparently, some people get physically ill from talking to others too much. By Jesse Singal. (Aug. 15, 2016)

Author pokes holes in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and explains how drinking can help us recall memories. By Jonathan Forani. (May 17, 2016)

Narcissists are imitators par excellence. And they do not copy the small, boring parts of selves. By Kristin Dombek.